Panel Real Cinema, Part 1: Arjen Mulder: What's real about film (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)


Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Film bears a specific relation to reality‭, ‬but the reality effect of film is not necessarily connected to the fact that film is‭ ‬a record or reality‭. ‬A theorist and a filmmaker present their highly personal views on ‘real cinema’.‬ Arjen Mulder‭’‬s‭ (‬NL‭) ‬position is that film’s special effect has nothing to do with the‭ ‘‬special effects‭’ ‬served up to us on celluloid‭. ‬Movement may be the essence of film‭, ‬but its effect on the viewer is an unfathomable silence‭. ‬He calls this feeling of silence and stillness at the heart of the event‭ ‘‬extramedia‭’, ‬because it defies every attempt to record it in a particular medium‭ ‬–‭ ‬image‭, ‬word or sound‭. ‬You cannot capture the extramedia‭, ‬but you can cause it to appear‭. ‬Writer and theoretician Arjen Mulder has a background in biology‭. ‬He has written several books on media art and the relation between technical media‭, ‬physical experience and belief systems‭. ‬Recent publications of his are‭ ‬Understanding Media Theory‭ (‬2004‭) ‬and‭ ‬De vrouw voor wie Cesare Pavese zelfmoord pleegde‭ (‬2005‭). Gerard Holthuis‭ ‬‭(‬NL‭) ‬started as sculptor and switched to moving image and sound at the Free Academy in The Hague‭. ‬During the 1980s he worked as editor‭, ‬cameraman and production manager‭. ‬He was co-founder of the Filmstad Foundation‭, ‬a workshop for experimental filmmakers‭. ‬The last few years he has worked on his cyclus‭ ‬Careless Reef‭ ‬in which he films the underwater landscape in a way that transforms our perception‭. ‬He concentrates on the image and on seeing‭ ‬in a time when the chatter about art seems to dominate‭. This talk was part of the panel 'Real Cinema', held on 24 February, 2008.

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